Microsatellite Instability Analysis

Approximately 10 to 15 % of sporadic colon and gastric cancers show the microsatellite instability phenotype (MSI), characterized by widespread somatic alterations in the length of the nucleotide repeat squence. MSI is also found in the majority of tumors from the familial syndrome, hereditary non-polyposis colorectal cancers (HNPCC or Lynch Syndrome). It is a reliable diagnostic marker for the identification of HNPCC and a molecular predictive marker for the identification of colon cancer patients that are susceptible for chemotherapy. The technique used for the analysis of MSI in HNPCC kit 1 - FL kit is based on in vitro amplification using a single multiplex PCR of 5 repeated sequences of DNA (microsatellites). Abnormal lengths of the amplicons and the resulting instability of microsatellites are easily detected on capillary electrophoretic analysis.

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